It is easy for us to be dazzled by illuminated manuscripts – all that gloriously vivid colour and brightly glittering gold. In part that was what their makers and owners wanted us to feel. We should wonder at the supreme artistry of some of the finest paintings to survive from the Middle Ages, painstakingly created over months, sometimes years, by the leading artists of their day. We should also be impressed by those well-preserved vestiges that showcase the magnificence of the great and the good of the medieval world. Yet, it is worth trying to look more carefully and to understand them more deeply. For they have so much to tell us about times very different from our own. Indeed they do so in a unique way, not as mere records of historical fact, but as active players in history. Reading their texts and viewing their illustrations informed how medieval people lived – what they knew and who they aspired to be.

King Edgar and Christ in Majesty, The New Minster Charter, Winchester, 966. Image: British Library Board

The present exhibition, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination, is the culmination of a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and undertaken by the British Library in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art. Over the past three years we have focused on one unique collection of manuscripts held by the British Library. Comprising around 2,000 handwritten books and owned by the British nation since its presentation in 1757 by George II, this collection contains many of the finest illuminated volumes associated with the Royal family from Anglo-Saxon to Tudor times. Taken together, these volumes offer by far the largest body of evidence for the interplay between the monarchy and art in the Middle Ages. The exhibition aims to make them as well known as landmark medieval buildings linked to the monarchy, such as the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle.

The first section of our exhibition focuses on Edward IV (who reigned from 1461-70 and 1471-83). A key figure in the War of the Roses, Edward was also important as the earliest king to have preserved a large part of his library. At the heart of the collection of Royal manuscripts in the British Library are around 50 illuminated manuscripts made for Edward in the Flemish town of Bruges. Huge in size and lavishly illustrated, Edward’s books remain the best witnesses of both the splendours and cultural sophistication of Yorkist England.

God the Creator in a French History Bible, Bible historiale, Clairefontaine and Paris, 1411. Image: British Library Board

In the next section, the Christian Monarch, the chronological reach of the exhibition is greatly expanded. Here we focus on the handwritten copies of Christian texts commissioned and owned by English royalty from Anglo-Saxon to Tudor times. The books on display include small, handheld prayer books for personal devotion, as well as large, lavish copies of the gospels and the entire Christian Bible. In such books as the Psalters owned by King Athelstan and Henry VIII we see not merely two further copies of the Psalms, but the very text and images that these two monarchs saw each day as they said their prayers.

The middle three sections of the show demonstrate how surviving illuminated manuscripts played a critical role in the formation and development of monarchs and their public personae. In Royal Identities books define and sanction the many and varied roles of a king as law-giver, military leader, and arbiter of chivalric conduct and courtly taste. In How to be a King we show the texts and illustrations that helped educate young princes and promoted role models for mature monarchs. The World’s Knowledge seeks both to provide a snapshot of the breadth of medieval learning and an insight into works of reference considered valuable for a king.

A wedding present for Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI, The Shrewsbury Book, Rouen, 1444–45. Image: British Library Board

The final section treats a rather topical theme – the relationship between England and the continent. In some of the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts of the late Middle Ages we catch glimpses of the kings of England as decidedly European monarchs. It is our hope that, upon leaving the exhibition, visitors will appreciate not only that it showcases the splendours of illuminated manuscripts, but highlights the unique insights that they offer into the fascinating history of an era long past. While the medieval kings and queens of England are no longer with us, their beautiful and eloquent books remain.

King David in the Psalms, The Westminster Psalter, London, c. 1200. Image: British Library Board